1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a home network system, and more particularly, to a home network system, which can easily integrate multiple segments of the home network system into a single segment, and a network setting method of a router in the home network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plurality of residential gateway devices may be installed in a home. For example, a gateway provided by an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) company, a wired-wireless router provided by a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company, a wired-wireless router individually purchased by a user, and the like, may exist simultaneously in a network within a home.
A user may use a connection service between home network devices as well as the Internet by using devices in the home. A Zero Configuration Protocol supports an automatic discovery function for services between home network devices. However, since each network corresponding to a gateway device operates as a single segment, it is impossible for each network to communicate with another network formed by another gateway device.
Therefore, a user directly changes a network configuration after accessing a wired-wireless router setting page of a home network. If a user desires to directly set a home network, the user is required to have knowledge of the network configuration. Further, several steps are required to change the setting (i.e., the mode) of the home network. Therefore, it may be difficult for the user to change the setting of the home network.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a general home network.
Referring to FIG. 1, a home network 1 includes a modem 20 connected to the Internet 10, a first router 22, a second router 24, and a third router 26. The second router 24 or the third router 26 may be a wired-wireless router. The first router 22 is connected to the modem 20 and is assigned a Wide Area Network (WAN) Internet Protocol (IP) address from the modem 20. Further, each of the second router 24 and the third router 26 is assigned an IP address from the first router 22.
A segment formed by the first router 22 is referred to as a first segment S1, a segment formed by the second router 24 is referred to as a second segment S2, and a segment formed by the third router 26 is referred to as a third segment S3. The home network 1 of FIG. 1 includes three segments S1, S2, and S3, i.e., multiple segments. However, each of the first segment S1, the second segment S2, and the third segment S3 is an independent segment. Specifically, even when the second router 24 and the third router 26 are assigned an IP from the first router 22, the segments S2 and S3 formed by the second router 24 and the third router 26 are separate from the first segment S1 of the first router 22. Since each of the segments S1, S2, and S3 is an individual segment, it is difficult to directly communicate between devices included in each of the segments S1, S2, and S3, even when the segments are configured in the same home network.
As shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the first segment S1 includes an eleventh device #11, a twelfth device #12, and a thirteenth device #13, the second segment S2 includes a twenty-first device #21, a twenty-second device #22, a twenty-third device #23, and a twenty-fourth device #24, and the third segment S3 includes a thirty-first device #31, a thirty-second device #32, and a thirty-third #33. Although both the eleventh device #11 and the twenty-second device #22 access the modem 20 through the first router 22 in FIG. 1, the first segment S1 and the second segment S2 are separate segments. As a result, the twenty-second device #22 is unable to discover a service of the eleventh device #11. Likewise, the second segment S2 and the third segment S3 are separate segments. As a result, the twenty-second device #22 is unable to discover a service of the thirty-third device #33. Thus, multiple individual segments in a home may reduce usability of a network.
As described above, a user may directly access a setting page of the wired-wireless routers 22, 24, and 26, and change the network setting to communicate among the segments S1, S2 and S3. However, it may be difficult to carry out the method, because the user is required to have knowledge of a network configuration to directly change the network setting and a change of the network setting requires several steps. Another method capable of setting a gateway uses a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) Internet Gateway Device (IGD) service. However, in this method, access to the UPnP IGD service may become impossible when the network setting goes wrong.